Dear Dayre,
Argh, I'm behind time again! 😱😭😰 It has been hard to update regularly the past few days cos I had limited data connection and I was too tired from every day's back-to-back activities, but I'm currently bunking in with my friend Tams at Sydney now, so here I am to do some catching up!
So on Saturday, we visited the Everleigh markets: these are like a weekend market and they sell anything from fresh organic produce to Vietnamese pho to bakes and everything nice! Very hipster area.
The markets are located in a storehouse (looks like a huge empty warehouse) that's to the left of this shot. I have some pictures of the interior, but they're on my camera cos I was mainly focusing on shooting the people in this area.
I super love Everleigh Market because there's so much to look at and it was just sensory overload! Cute kids and dogs, lots of interaction going on etc.
The very first scene that caught my eye was this cherubic looking toddler who was happily drawing circles on the pavement with chalk! She was totally getting chalk all over herself and her pants, but her mama didn't mind and she had SO much fun just playing with the chalk.
We played with her a little and though she was shy at first, she warmed up after awhile and I got some really adorable shots of her.
Such a cutie!
I totally loved the vibes. Everyone was just there to chill on a Saturday morning, either with their kids or with a friend just sitting by the pavement and eating or chatting or drinking coffee. It was so nice!
Like these two guys.. They had a lovely Goldie called Wilson! I asked them for a portrait and then got their email address to send it to them. I think it's great how everyone is so friendly over there! No one told me off for taking a picture and sometimes I even chatted with them and said goodbye with a smile.
I liked this shot too of a grocer and a lady customer! Just look at those huge smiles on both their faces.. Smiling is contagious and it's very easy to see why Australians are all so laid back and relaxed. It's just in their culture, really.
This little girl in a rainbow tutu dress was running around the markets and I had to stalk her for a good five minutes before I got any nice shots! Isn't her outfit cute?
An accidental food picture that turned out very funny because Daphne was wearing a shirt with a face on it. We bought this Pho from one of the market stalls and it was delicious!!
Even the old folks come out to chill too.. How to not to love this amazing culture?
This 13 months old toddler was running about really happily.. With his diapers in one hand. Lol so cute please just look at that happy grin on his face!
If you think that only Melbourne has a street scene, you're wrong! Sydney has got their own neighborhoods like those around Everleigh Market and also Newtown: which is somewhat grungy and similar to Melbourne. This street had got tons and tons of grafitti-ed walls.
We had lunch at Newtown before spending some time wandering around and exploring. It was nice to have some free and easy time to just look about and I even did a spot of shopping!
Oh yeah, I found this beautiful floral shop in Newtown with super gorgeous flower arrangements! The whole shop was a floral wonderland!!!
I wish we had such pretty flowers in Singapore!
Super pretty.
Some cool people I met in Newtown. They were tattoo artists working at a tattoo parlour, and were just having a smoke outside. I asked them for a picture, and they gamely posed for it!
Cool stuff huh?
The old me wouldn't have dared to approach strangers for pictures, but most people are so friendly in Sydney that it isn't a problem at all even though it can be a little awkward to do that. But I feel so liberated with a successful request and photo 😁 #missionaccomplished
We had dinner near Darling Harbour, before the last official assignment for the day: fireworks photography at Darling Harbour!
It was definitely harder than it looked, especially in the freezing cold! My fingers were so frozen I could hardly feel them in the cold.
I did manage to get one good shot with pretty light trails.. Your shutter speed has to be very precise in order to capture them fireworks on camera.
I'm really glad to have learnt so much more about photography whilst on this trip! It's definitely very useful knowledge for me, because I take so many pictures all the time. Photography is not just about that expensive camera gear and bokeh!
Here's my proof.
I managed to shoot this photo of the Milky Way with my Samsung Nx3000, kit lens! No tripod, no other equipment.
A handful of us wanted to give star shooting a try so we went down to Bondi Beach at 10.30pm after checking into our new hotel just next to Bondi Beach.
It was even colder by the sea, and I was bundled up in like four or five layers! The wind was so strong that it blew the tripods down a couple of times, and we almost got our gear wet when the tide rushed in 😰
Anyway, this was one of my favourite days yet during this entire trip! The Everleigh market and star shooting in particular.
It was pretty hilarious during the star shooting, cos like I mentioned, I don't have a tripod! So some of us had to put our cameras on the sand instead. And people kept on getting into our shot! 😡 It's a 30 seconds exposure and it's so dark you couldn't make out what's on the LCD screen, so our shots were really trial-and-error and experimental.
I had so much fun!
You need a 30 seconds exposure to shoot the stars like this!
This is the other Milky Way shot I got. This one was a lil blur, might have been the strong wind 🙁 but still, it's quite amazing what a small camera can do, isn't it?
You do have to tweak the file a little in a post processing software, and this was done with Snapseed!
So that was the end of Day 5.. Time passes so quickly as usual! Dayre really makes me realise how fast the days go by. Half the year is over!